Three Tips To Help You Negotiate The Salary You’ve Always Wanted

Recent Galvanize web development graduate Tosin Awofeso happened to be sitting in a workshop about salary negotiation when he got a call with a job offer. He says in that moment he had the confidence to fight for the salary he wanted—and ultimately got. We asked Awofeso for three tips that helped him land his dream paycheck.

1. Remember you are the prize.

If you’ve gotten all the way to the point where a company is giving you an offer, they don’t want to lose you. In most cases, they want to get you for as cheap as possible, but they aren’t going to run away when you push back.

2. Never ever say a number first!

If you’re negotiating and the company hasn’t given you a salary number, don’t say something first. You don’t want to say $72,000 and they were gonna pay $85,000. If they ask what salary you were looking for, say something like, “The standard rate for someone of my skill set in this city, what’s your budget for hiring a [insert your job title].”

3. Remember this isn’t the last offer.

If you know what you should be paid (do your research) and a company doesn’t want to pay you what you’re worth, you don’t have to do it. There’ll be another job.